DJ Hero 2 UKReview

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And the beat goes on...

By Matt Wales

So, apparently, the popularity of music games is in serious decline. Blame buyer fatigue, or blame the fact that anyone who's indulged heavily in the genre for the last couple of years has practically had to remortgage their home for that peripheral-graveyard house extension in the garden. Us though, we blame the fact that most rhythm-action game developers simply seem to have forgotten how to have fun.

While some have disappeared up the arse of their own musical pretensions, others have been so focussed on superficial features designed to flog the next iteration of lucrative hardware they've forgotten refinement and improvement should happen in the name of entertainment. Thank god for FreeStyleGames then. True, you're still going to have to fork out 90 quid for the game and turntable peripheral (or significantly cheaper by shopping round for the first game online) if you didn't grab the hardware last time but, by freeing itself of arbitrary hardware upgrades for its sequel, FreeStyleGames has been able to pile all of its creative efforts into making its fledgling music franchise as good as it possibly can be, and all in the name of fun.

In basic terms, DJ Hero 2 is pretty much identical to its predecessor. You're charged with following on-screen cues to mimic familiar DJ actions on your plastic turntable - cross-fades, scratches and sampling - in time with the 90-track-strong roster of uniformly superb musical mixes and mash-ups. The higher up the difficulty ladder you climb, the more intricate the patterns you're expected to follow - and the better you do, the more stars you gather to unlock new tracks, costumes, items and venues.

In that respect, it's hardly any different to the bevy of rhythm-action games we've seen in recent years. Where the original DJ Hero made its mark was in its refreshingly inclusive, unpretentious approach to the genre. It's the same story again and DJ Hero 2 offers yet another beautifully-structured, meticulously refined game that caters equally to progression-obsessed genre fans and casual bystanders who simply want to pop on their DJ clogs and get stuck in.

It's especially good news for the latter crowd this time: FreeStyleGames has reworked the lower difficulty settings to make for a more convincing DJing experience, without sacrificing that all-important accessibility. Now, all the core ingredients of the game put in an appearance from the off, albeit perfectly-pitched at a level which isn't likely to send newcomers body-popping for the hills. It's simply a more interesting game for beginners now - and that means more people are likely to get involved and stay involved for longer.

Don't worry though, seasoned faux-vinyl shredders are equally catered for too. Rather than over-complicating matters for the sake of it however, FreeStyleGames has shown remarkable restraint in upgrading the series' core mechanics. New inclusions simply expand on existing actions - held presses and long rewinds being pretty much the extent of things. What's most astonishing is the sheer amount of mileage the developer gets out of these relatively minor additions though - and even genuinely skilled players are likely to balk at the sadistic degree of acrobatics these combined upgrades command. Yet it's testament to FreeStyleGames' skill that, no matter how fearsome things gets on the turntable, it always manages to feel like a natural extension of the music.

Of course, there's another much-vaunted, addition to the basic game formula this time around and that's freestyle play, designed to sling a bit of musical creativity into the watch-and-repeat mix. There are freestyle variants on all three core game mechanics - cross-fading, scratching and sampling - and at specific moments in a mix you can hammer, swipe and twirl to your heart's content. Big points are awarded based on technique, rhythm and creativity. Truthfully, these aren't quite the cataclysmic game-changers they might sound - by, understandably, limiting freestyle play to specific segments, there's only so much musical genius you can impose on tracks. That said, freestyle play does exactly what it should where it matters, giving players a welcome bit of breathing space and freedom among the constant onslaught of beat-matching.